Solo Practitioner, Backed By Latham & Watkins, Wins SCOTUS Tax Ruling

National Law Journal, Solo Practitioner, Backed by Latham & Watkins, Wins SCOTUS Tax Ruling:

A Fargo, North Dakota, solo practitioner, with help from Latham & Watkins, scored a unanimous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday for herself, and low-income taxpayers and small businesses.

The court, in an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, ruled in Boechler v. IRS that the 30-day time limit for filing a petition in the U.S. Tax Court to challenge the IRS’s decision to seize property to collect tax debts is not a jurisdictional limit and can be equitably tolled.

Jeanette Boechler of the Boechler Law Firm missed the 30-day filing deadline by one day in 2017.

Barrett wrote that the court treats a procedural requirement as jurisdictional only if Congress clearly states that it is. The case turned on whether Congress had clearly stated the deadline in Section 6330(d)(1) for a petition for review of a collection due process decision is jurisdictional.

“As we see it, the text does not clearly mandate the jurisdictional reading,” Barrett said, adding that the “broader statutory context” confirmed the lack of any clear statement.

Reuters, U.S. Supreme Court Revives Law Firm's Day-Late Challenge to IRS Levy